EDWARD ARBER, LONDON: 5 QLEEN SQUARE, BLOOMSB('R", W.C. Ent. Stat. Hall.) i March 1869. (All rights reserved. lui را INTRODUCTION, 3 11 July 1637. Star-Chamber Decree, 29 January 1642. Order of the House of Commons, Order of the House of Commons, 14 June 1643. Order of the Lords and Commons, 1. The origin, inventors and object of Book licen- 2. What is to be thought in general of reading books, 3. The Order [of 14 June 1643] conduces nothing to the end for which it was framed, 4. The manifest hurt it causes :- (1) It is the greatest discouragement and affront that can be offered to learning and to learned (2) It is an undervaluing and vilifying of the (3) It brings disrepute upon the Ministers, Proof.—The servile condition of learning in Italy, 60 61 5. It may prove a nursing mother to sects, 6. It will be the step-dame to Truth :- (1) By disenabling us in the maintenance of what (2) By the incredible loss it entails in hindering Description of the English nation, INTRODUCTION. garded in many ways. It may be considered led to its conception and creation; and in the midst of which it appeared. It may be studied, as exhibiting the moral intent, the mental power of its author. Its contents may be analysed as to their intrinsic truthfulness or falsity. We may trace and identify its influence upon its own age and on succeeding generations. This is an apprehension of the mind of a book. More than this. We may examine its style, its power and manner of expressing that mind. The ringing collocation of its words, the harmonious cadence of its sentences, the flashing gem-like beauty of isolated passages, the just mapping out of the general argument, the due subordination of its several parts, their final inweaving into one overpowering conclusion: these are the features, discovering, illuminating, enforcing the mind of a book. Much of what is in books is false, much only half true, much true. It is impossible to separate the tares from the wheat. Every one, therefore-of necessity— must read discriminatively; often lifting and searching for first principles, often testing the catenation of an argument, often treasuring up incidental truths for future use; enjoying—as delights by the way-whatever felicity of expression, gorgeousness of imagination, vividness of description, or aptness of illustration may glance, like sunshine, athwart the path : the journey's end being Truth. The purpose through these English Reprints is to bring this modern age face to face with the works of our forefathers. The Editor and his clumsy framework |
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